TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Guyana-focused project developer Eagle Mountain Gold is moving forward with an environmental-impact assessment (EIA), following the company’s exercise of an option to acquire from Iamgold subsidiary Omai Gold Mines the remaining 50% interest in the advanced-stage Eagle Mountain gold property.
While attending the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s recent event, Eagle Mountain CEO Yannis Tsitos told Mining Weekly Online that now that the company’s plans were firming, it was also in talks with its engineers to start determining the scope of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its flagship project.
“We are now starting to work out the finer details of the project, and our largest shareholder Iamgold is assisting us in the process,” Tsitos said.
He said among the tasks to be completed for the EIA were the detailed sampling of fauna and flora within the project area, which must be undertaken over a year so as to include all the seasons. The company wanted to complete the EIA by 2014.
The Eagle Mountain property hosts a near-surface National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource of 188 000 oz of gold in the indicated category and 792 000 oz of gold in the inferred category, with significant potential for expansion.
The deposit covers 250 ha of the 5 050 ha property and is open in three lateral directions and at depth with strong mineralisation along its edges.
Tsitos pointed out that Guyana is a mining-friendly jurisdiction, owing to the primary extractive industry accounting for about a quarter of the country’s gross domestic product.